For when we were yet without strength - The apostle, having pointed out the glorious state of the believing Gentiles, takes occasion to contrast this with their former state; and the means by which they were redeemed from it. Their former state he points out in four particulars; which may be applied to men in general.

I. They were ασθενεις, without strength; in a weak, dying state: neither able to resist sin, nor do any good: utterly devoid of power to extricate themselves from the misery of their situation.

II. They were ασεβεις, ungodly; without either the worship or knowledge of the true God; they had not God in them; and, consequently, were not partakers of the Divine nature: Satan lived in, ruled, and enslaved their hearts.

III. They were ἁμαρτωλοι, sinners, Romans 5:8, aiming at happiness, but constantly missing the mark, which is the ideal meaning of the Hebrew חטא chata, and the Greek ἁμαρτανω. See this explained, Genesis 13:13. And in missing the mark, they deviated from the right way; walked in the wrong way; trespassed in thus deviating; and, by breaking the commandments of God, not only missed the mark of felicity, but exposed themselves to everlasting misery.

IV. They were εχθροι enemies, Romans 5:10, from εχθος, hatred, enmity, persons who hated God and holiness; and acted in continual hostility to both. What a gradation is here!

1. In our fall from God, our first apparent state is, that we are without strength; have lost our principle of spiritual power, by having lost the image of God, righteousness and true holiness, in which we were created.

2. We are ungodly, having lost our strength to do good; we have also lost all power to worship God aright. The mind which was made for God is no longer his residence.

3. We are sinners; feeling we have lost our centre of rest, and our happiness, we go about seeking rest, but find none: what we have lost in losing God, we seek in earthly things; and thus are continually missing the mark, and multiplying transgressions against our Maker.

4. We are enemies; sin, indulged, increases in strength; evil acts engender fixed and rooted habits; the mind, every where poisoned with sin, increases in averseness from good; and mere aversion produces enmity; and enmity, acts of hostility, fell cruelty, etc.: so that the enemy of God hates his Maker and his service; is cruel to his fellow creatures; "a foe to God, was ne'er true friend to man;" and even torments his own soul! Though every man brings into the world the seeds of all these evils, yet it is only by growing up in him that they acquire their perfection - nemo repente fuit turpissimus - no man becomes a profligate at once; he arrives at it by slow degrees; and the speed he makes is proportioned to his circumstances, means of gratifying sinful passions, evil education, bad company, etc., etc. These make a great diversity in the moral states of men: all have the same seeds of evil - nemo sine vitiis nascitur - all come defiled into the world; but all have not the same opportunities of cultivating these seeds. Besides, as God's Spirit is continually convincing the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and the ministers of God are seconding its influence with their pious exhortations, as the Bible is in almost every house, and is less or more heard or read by almost every person, these evil seeds are receiving continual blasts and checks, so that, in many cases, they have not a vigorous growth. These causes make the principal moral differences that we find among men; though in evil propensities they are all radically the same.

That all the preceding characters are applied by some learned men to the Gentiles, exclusively as such, I am well aware; and that they may be all applied to them in a national point of view, there can be little doubt. But there are too many correspondences between the state of the modern Gentiles and that of the ancient Gentiles, to justify the propriety of applying the whole as fully to the former as to the latter. Indeed, the four particulars already explained point out the natural and practical state of every human being, previously to his regeneration by the grace and Spirit of God.

In due time Christ died for the ungodly - This due or proper time will appear in the following particulars: -

1. Christ was manifested in the flesh when the world needed him most.

2. When the powers of the human mind had been cultivated to the utmost both in Greece and Rome, and had made every possible effort, but all in vain, to find out some efficient scheme of happiness.

3. When the Jews were in the lowest state of corruption, and had the greatest need of the promised deliverer.

continued...

For.

Ezekiel 16:4-8 And as for your nativity, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to supple you...

Ephesians 2:1-5 And you has he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins...

Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has he quickened together with him...

Titus 3:3-5 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy...

without.

Lamentations 1:6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture...

Daniel 11:15 So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the most fenced cities...

in due time. or, according to the time.

Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

Hebrews 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world...

1 Peter 1:20 Who truly was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

Christ.

Romans 5:8 But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 4:25 Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

ungodly. See on ch.

Romans 4:5 But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Romans 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer...

Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners...

1 Timothy 1:9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners...

Titus 2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

2 Peter 2:5,6 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness...

2 Peter 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store...

Jude 1:4,15,18 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men...

Access into Grace
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.'--ROMANS v. 2. I may be allowed to begin with a word or two of explanation of the terms of this passage. Note then, especially, that also which sends us back to the previous clause, and tells us that our text adds something to what was spoken of there. What was spoken of there? 'The peace of God' which comes to a man by Jesus Christ through faith, the removal of enmity, and the declaration of righteousness. But that peace …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

For whom did Christ Die?
While man is in this condition Jesus interposes for his salvation. "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly"; "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us," according to "his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins." The pith of my sermon will be an endeavour to declare that the reason of Christ's dying for us did not lie in our excellence; but where sin abounded grace did much more abound, for the persons for whom Jesus …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 20: 1874

Sin and Grace
"Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."--Romans 5:20. THERE are two very powerful forces in the world, which have been here ever since the time when Eve partook of the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden. Those two forces are sin and grace. A very great power is sin, a power dark, mysterious, baleful, but full of force. The sorrows of mankind, whence came they but from sin? We should have known no war, nor pestilence, nor famine, nor would aught of sickness or sorrow ever have smitten …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 54: 1908